1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air purifier, and more particularly, to an air purifier having an excellent air purifying function, although the size of which is small, and preventing a large amount of ozone which is harmful to a human body from being generated.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
In general, an air purifier removing dust and bad smell for a pleasant atmosphere is widely used in a living room of a general home, interior of a car, and such places many people gathers as restaurants, hospitals, and offices.
The air purifier is usually used independently. It is however a trend that the air purifier is used as a supplementary device mounted to home appliances such as an air conditioner. In other words, recently, many home appliances having not only cooling/heating and ventilating functions but also air purifying function have been manufactured.
FIG. 1 illustrates a diagram schematically showing a related art air purifier, and FIG. 2 illustrates a diagram showing a corona discharge generated from the related art air purifier. Referring to FIG. 1, the related art air purifier includes a case 10 having opened top and bottom surfaces, a plurality of ground electrodes 20 and a plurality of discharge electrodes 30 provided in the case 10.
The plurality of ground electrodes 20 are spaced apart a predetermined distance from each other in the case. One of the discharge electrodes 30 is provided between every other consecutive ground electrodes 20. In this case, each ground electrode 20 includes a rectangular plate, and each discharge electrode 30 includes a round wire.
The discharge electrode 30 and the ground electrode 20 are spaced apart a predetermined interval from each other, the predetermined distance being more than a common number cm, and respectively coupled with a power source 50 (Refer to FIG. 2) for supplying a high voltage. On upper and lower surfaces of the case 10, a net 40 is provided for preventing large impurities from being entered into the case 10.
An operating principle of the related art air purifier structured as above-mentioned will be briefly described as follows. Referring to FIG. 2, when a voltage is supplied by the power source to the ground electrode 20 the discharge electrode 30, a corona discharge for ionizing surrounding air is generated between the ground electrode 20 the discharge electrode 30.
Due to the corona discharge, anions and ozone separating contaminants contained in air and sterilizing germs are generated around the electrode. Accordingly, the air entered into the air purifier is purified by the anions and ozone.
Meanwhile, the corona discharge is generated when a high voltage of more than 5 KV is supplied to the ground electrode 20 and the discharge electrode 30. In this case, a voltage generating the corona discharge is called an onset discharge, and the onset discharge is different depending on an interval between the discharge electrode 30 and the ground electrode 20.
The related art air purifier in accordance with the related art has following problems. First, since the air purifier in accordance with the related art has a plurality of discharge electrodes and ground electrodes, there is a limitation in miniaturizing it. Particularly, when an air purifier is provided in a home appliance, there is a problem that the whole size of the home appliance is increased.
Second, the related art air purifier generates a plurality of ozone during the corona generation. The higher a voltage supplied to an electrode is, the more amount of ozone is generated. Ozone being a strong acid substance, performs a role of disassembling organic matters in air, but is harmless to a human body.
Therefore, there is a problem that the related art air purifier demands a post-cleaning process for removing ozone generated after the corona discharge.